Oregon 74, St. Louis 57
Wow did the seeding committee screw up on the subject of Oregon. Oregon finished 2nd in the Pac-12 for the regular season, then won the conference tournament. And this was out of a 5-bid conference. And somehow the committee saw fit to drop Oregon all the way to a 12-seed. Well, all Oregon has done is beat the 5-seed by 13 and now drop the 4-seed by 17. This means they should beat Louisville by 29. Oregon is quick, plays good defense (holding St. Louis to 3/21 from behind the arc), and shot over 50% from the field (and 8/11 from 3-point land). That's a tough combo to play against.
Marquette 74, Butler 72
Finally, after 5 clunkers, we had a decent game. Both teams traded haymakers all game long. Butler was raining 3's (11 for 24) whiel Marquette did their damage on the free throw line (23 for 27), but it came down to the final minute. Marquette out-executed Butler (no small feat, Butler coach Brad Stevens is terrific) down the stretch, taking a 4 point lead with 4 seconds left. Game over, right?
No, then it got weird.
First, Butler uses a timeout, and executes a full court pass for a layup taking only a second off the clock. Now Butler's down 2 and Marquette has to inbound the ball. Marquette's player, with multiple timeouts remaining, throws a risky short lob pass which is fumbled out of bounds, handing the ball to Butler with just over 2 seconds left. Unfortunately for Butler, they had to inbound it to their center above the three point line, and the shot he got off could best be described as a wounded duck, so Marquette survives, and advances.
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